AFL TV Wrap: Cyril Rioli invited to Hawthorn training, umpiring changes

Herald Sun

14-05-2025

Will Cyril Rioli ever re-enter the fold at Hawthorn? And is the standard of umpiring going to get better without 'elite' standards?
There was plenty happening on Tuesday night's TV shows, and we have packaged the best bits for you here.
Midweek Tackle
Hawthorn's attempts to break bread with premiership star Cyril Rioli looks like it will continue, with Jon Ralph reporting the club has reached out to the 2015 Norm Smith Medallist.
Rioli has not returned to the club he played 198 games for, instead living in Darwin and remaining removed from AFL circles.
But with the Hawks travelling to the Top End to face Gold Coast, Ralph says the club reached out to Rioli to invite him back into the fold.
'They have asked him to a training session, as well as all their past players (Wednesday), they don't expect that he will be there,' he said on Midweek Tackle.
'His premiership teammates aren't really able to get into contact with him, even luminaries like Michael Long, Indigenous stars like him really can't really help him in any way.
'He did attend the Indigenous All Stars game and as (Michael) O'Loughlin said he feels so burnt, so let down, he says there's serious hard work… to be done there.' AFL 360
Ray Chamberlain says the standard of AFL umpiring could be better in 2025, but he does not think it will improve without greater investment from the league.
Calls for transitioning umpiring into a full-time professional career are growing stronger, but Chamberlain said elite frameworks would be enough to improve the standards.
'I do agree more time, I don't think full time is necessarily the right term,' he said on AFL 360.
'I think the game demands and deserves elite. So it's got to be enough time, enough resources, to equate to elite performance, elite preparations, elite recovery.
'So Patrick Dangerfield goes to Geelong after killing it on the weekend, and he'll have physio and he'll have osteo and he'll have doctors and he'll review and he'll have massage and pilates, and it'll all be at the club and he'll spend the day there and he won't miss a trick.
'Brett Rosebury will go into work, he'll whack out three or four hours, he'll get in early. He'll then leave his place of work, he'll drive to a universal practice in Fitzroy.
'And he'll do his pilates, he'll pay for that out of his own pocket, then he'll go back to his work and he'll continue on his merry way with his vocational pursuit in the day.
'He will not only take the time out of his day, but he'll also pay for it out of his own pocket, to undertake what it takes to be the best over 20 years.'
SHOWDOWN SPOTLIGHT
He might have played in the SANFL Showdown at the weekend, but veteran Power star Travis Boak wants a primetime slot for the senior edition of the game.
The former skipper has only missed two iterations of the Showdown during his career, and now wants it to be a primetime slot for the return game this season.
'It was horrible to watch,' he said jokingly on AFL 360.
'It was a cracking game... and they're always hard-fought games and always really close, so I think that's why both clubs are pushing for a Friday night Showdown.
'They are such a good spectacle.
'It was a quality game of footy but I would've definitely loved to be out there.'
The AFL is expected to finalise the fixtures from round 16 onwards in the coming days, with the Crows hosting the round 20 Showdown against the Power. Footy Classified
Eddie McGuire wants umpiring radically changed in a move that would spell the end of throw ins and would move solely to score reviews.
The former Collingwood president says the move to four field umpires, a decision that has been scrutinised in recent weeks, was simply not enough.
Instead, he used Footy Classified to call for an additional four field umpires, to a total of eight, that are designated zones across the field.
'You zone off and let the ball come to you all the time,' he said.
'Under my plan we get rid of goal umpires and boundary umpires.